I'm Here
by TakeYourAim
Summary: What if Dani had transferred to McKinley as a sophomore? What if that girl her parents walked in on was Santana? What happens when they find each other almost six years later? [Dantana AU with a side of StarKurt and every other ship ever. T for now, most likely later M for future chapters.]
1. Chapter 1

**_AN: So this is my first not-one shot fic I'm publishing. The chapters are kind of short for now due to the flow of things, but once the time changes stop and there are more details to each scene, they'll get longer, I promise. Let me know what you think!_**

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"Maybe I'm just being naïve," Dani said with a shrug as she sipped her glass of wine. Dyed red hair had fallen past her shoulders, free from the tie that it was usually bound in for work. Lauren's eyebrows simply raised, knowing her best friend would continue her thought without a prompt. "But I really don't think that finding someone and building a relationship should entail all the damn drama it does. Seriously. My parents may be assholes, but it was pretty simple for them. Yeah, they fought, but they never broke up, never had earth shattering drama that made them think it was hopeless." She took another sip before rolling her eyes and finishing the glass. Lauren was already pouring her a third glass as she started talking again. "Is it just a lesbian thing? I mean, I've heard of 'dyke drama' but this is ridiculous," she finished with a scoff and an eye roll.

Lauren could only laugh at her friend. "Dani, it might seem as though it's all hell, but maybe it's just that you haven't found someone worth fighting for, but they all think you are," she said over the rim of her wine glass.

"Always the fucking romantic."

"What!? It's true. Nick and I may not have completely smooth sailing, but it's worth it knowing that, in the end, we'd always rather fight with each other than laugh with anyone else."

"Again. Always the fucking romantic. You live in a goddamn romantic comedy," Dani said with yet another eye roll. "And, you're furthering my point. Hetero. So much easier than lesbians! I could be hetero."

"No you can't."

"What do you mean? I've never tried it, but maybe I could be into that."

"Dani, you're looking at my chest."

Dani cleared her throat and brought her eyes to Lauren's. "I like your necklace."

"I'm not wearing one. Congratulations, you're still gay."

"Okay, fine, so maybe I can't be hetero, but can't I find a woman that understands that _finding a Hollywood actress _attractive _doesn't_ mean I cheat on her with every female that talks to me? I'm allowed to find other people attractive and still be devoted to a girlfriend, am I not?" she asked with her eyebrows raised, daring Lauren to contradict her.

"No, you're allowed. I find other guys attractive. Nick finds other girls attractive. It's natural. But, at the end of the day, we're all each other wants. We trust each other. Dani, you're not going to find that right away with just anyone. Nick and I have been together for four years. Since we were 19. And yes, we were stupid and jealous for a long time, but eventually you trust each other completely."

Dani sighed and leaned back in her chair, swirling the wine around in her glass as she thought. "You know, I had that once." Even without looking up from the alcohol, she could see Lauren's shock. "I've never told you about Santana, have I?" Again, just a wide eyed shake of a blonde head, causing Dani to laugh. "I was in high school. Now, before you give me that look, it was real. We were young and idiotic, but it was most definitely real."

"How come you never mentioned her before?"

Dani paused for a while as she sighed. "I guess it still kind of hurts. I told you how my parents threw me out for being gay, right?" she asked. Lauren nodded again. "Santana was the girl they caught me with."


	2. Chapter 2

_Sophomore Year..._

"Okay, guys," Mr. Schuester said with a clap of his hands. Even as he bounced up from the piano, not a single over-moused curl moved from its assigned position on his head. "We've got a new auditioner. Everyone please give Danielle… I'm sorry, Dani, your complete attention." The correction was made when the young brunette lifted her eyebrows, her mouth opening to make her own. "That means you, Santana," he amended, forcing the girl to look up from the nail file, her eyes finding Schue's moments before landing on Dani's. Her lips pursed forward, masking the small smile that twitched at her lips before looking back down to closely inspect her nails, only vaguely recognizing the "San… She's pretty," whisper coming from her best friend. Brittany had absolutely no confirmation on her suspicions, but she was Brittany, the person who would eventually become the FBI's human lie detector.

Dani's eyes skipped from the brunette to the two blondes on either side of the woman who must be Santana, to their obvious cheerleading uniforms. With that realization, Dani shook her head with a small laugh before grabbing the guitar from the top of the piano. "Well… yeah. I'm Dani. I wrote this. It's a personal thing, so, quite frankly, don't critique the song, I don't want to hear it," she said with a small shrug, causing the eyebrows of Quinn and Santana to raise in unison. They exchanged a shared look. "One of us," was said with their eyes, confirmed with a nod. Their attention was drawn back to Dani as she started singing. Well. The three sets of eyes in the back row widened, Brittany smiling and rocking back and forth as Quinn and Santana schooled their reactions back to bored and stoic, each whipping out a nail file.

The song came to a close and everyone erupted in applause, Quinn and Santana's much more reserved than the third member of their clique. Or anyone else in the room. Out of the corner of her eye, Santana watched Quinn make eye contact with the newest member of Glee club, her eyebrows raising in praise before looking to the seat next to her, a silent offer few ever received that weren't clad in a red and white uniform. Much to the surprise of the three cheerleaders, however, they weren't returned with a giddy thanks and an eager-to-please newbie. Dani's response was another snort of amusement before studying the crowd again, deciding to sit next to Rachel Berry in the front row, the only one in the room who didn't want the new girl's company. She carried far too much competition for the diva's liking.

Santana glanced at Quinn, both shrugging before looking back up to the front where Schue was taking the floor again, still clapping regardless of the fact that everyone else had stopped. "Welcome, Dani!" he said, his voice much louder than necessary. "Wow. That was great. Good to have you aboard. You're coming in at the perfect time. Because…" he said, grinning due to his less than stellar lead up. Quinn and Santana had resumed their quiet conversation, tuning him out until he walked to the board, writing 'duets' in big, messy handwriting on the board, as though simply saying it wouldn't allow it to stick in their minds. Santana, however, smirked and returned Brittany's offered high-five, their hands coming back down to rest between them, pinkies locked together. Puckerman was already scooting over from the other side of the back row to sit next to Quinn, while everyone else looked around awkwardly to find a friend for the assignment, Dani looking especially lost. "_Not_ so fast, ladies," Schue said from the front as he the three girls who both looked back at him incredulously, wondering how much they could intimidate a grown man. "Since the last few times we've tried this exercise, you all end up with the same people. That gets boring guys, no offense," he said, noticing the appalled look on Rachel's face, Finn's matching a few moments later as he caught up. He grabbed a hat and shook it after adding a piece of paper with Dani's name scrawled on it. "We'll pick names. If you get someone you've worked with too many times before, you put it back in and try again," he said, eliciting a chuckle from Puckerman at the innuendo. Schue shook his head, not understanding, and continued. "For example, Rachel and Finn. You two won't sing together. Neither will Santana and Brittany, Quinn and Sam, or Quinn and Finn. This is about expanding your horizons. Dani. You're the newest member, why don't you pick first," he said, offering the hat to Dani after making a show of mixing up the names.

Dani looked at him in disbelief but went along with it, sticking her hand in the hat and pulling out a paper. She opened the paper and her eyes flittered to the back row, remaining neutral. "Santana," she said, reading off the name with a hint of distaste laced in her voice. What could she say? Every cheerleader she met was stupid, annoying, and lacking in real talent. Schuester made some sort of encouraging comment before moving onto the next person, the eye contact between the two girls lingering only momentarily before Santana turned her attention to Quinn. The blonde gave her a familiar look. "Recruit her."

It only took about twenty more minutes for the selection process to finish. The director's _flawless_ system hitting glitches with every person. Finn drew Quinn twice, then Rachel, then himself before finally getting Sam, and then felt it necessary to say something like "no homo, man," after saying they were partners. This continued until the bell rang, everyone reluctantly splitting off to their unusual partners to discuss.

"Hey," Dani said once they got to their corner.

"I don't gots time for pleasantries. If Q, B, and I are late one more time, Sylvester will reenact the French Revolution of our high ponies. I gots to go afores she finds her costume. I don't sing back up, and you'd be wise to pick something I can belt," she said as she started to rummage through the bag on her shoulder. Santana pulled out a notebook and quickly scrawled her number and name to the page, tore it off, and put it in Dani's hand. "Here's my number. Text me. And not the night before we perform. I wants those stix." She gave her a stern look before starting towards her friends. Perhaps the harshness was the wrong approach for Dani, but Quinn had always been adamant that, if you can't recruit someone, make them afraid of you. She'd just have to cover both bases. As the two blondes disappeared into the hallway, Santana cast one last, much softer, look to Dani, which caught the other woman slightly off guard.

"Ignore her, honey," a voice said next to her. Dani looked to the side, having to stop her eyebrows from raising at the flamboyancy of the boy next to her. "She's always like that to just about everyone but Quinn and Brittany. I'm Kurt Elizabeth Hummel. It's nice to meet you," he said, his hand sticking out. Dani took it and shook his hand with a smile. "I certainly hope the rumors you will most definitely hear about me won't impede a possible friendship, however I am fully understanding of the fact that status is just about everything in high school."

The shock on Dani's face couldn't be hidden this time. "I'm going to guess the rumors have something to do with homosexuality?" she asked with a chuckle, Kurt simply nodded with a small blush. "Don't worry, Kurt. I'm a lot of things, but I'm no hypocrite." Kurt glanced at her, slightly more confused. "I'm gay, as well. You've got yourself an ally. A real ally," she amended.

Kurt's eyebrows raised, a true smile breaking over his impeccably cared for face. "Really? That's so great. I've been so sick of being the only one. Care to get a cup of coffee? I'm meeting my boyfriend, Blaine, but we'd love for you to join us."

"You don't mind? I'd love to…"

Kurt's only response was to loop his arm through Dani's, escorting her out of the building and to the car.


	3. Chapter 3

_Present Time..._

"Who's this?" Elliott asked, picking up the photo that had fallen from between the pages of the yearbook he was about to pack. Santana stood from the box she had just taped shut to cross the room. She sighed as the photo smiled back at her.

"That's Dani," Santana said simply, slipping the obvious Prom photo back into the yearbook and safely into the designated box.

"Informative. Care to share more?" Elliott was a decent counterpart to Santana. Once knowing someone, he opened up easily. _"I'm fabulous and once I'm famous you'll just read about my amazing life. Might as well tell you now." _Those were his exact words when Santana called him out on oversharing early in their friendship.

"Fine," Santana nearly snapped. "She was my first girlfriend, okay?"

"First and only," Kurt chimed in from where he was seated on the bed.

"Shut it, Hummel."

"Just speaking the truth," he said with a shrug. "Besides, Elliott needs to know why you're so damn bitter in the first place."

"I'm not bitter."

"I've called five girls by the name of the previous in the last five weeks. You don't sleep with the same girl more than three times. And you call us 'sorry suckers who got grasped by the hell-claws of love,'" Kurt said with raised eyebrows. "Sorry, sweet-cheeks, but you're bitter."

"Call me sweet-cheeks again, Porcelain, I dare you. Snixx has been just itching to claw your Ken-Doll face until you look like an extra from _Chucky_. Your choice."

"Oooh. Porcelain. I haven't heard that one in… oh wait. How long has it been since Dani fell off the face of the Earth? Seven years right? Yeah, seven years since you called me Porcelain and I reminded you that Dani said she'd kick your ass and leave you if you kept being mean to me," he said with a challenging smirk.

"Still hiding behind your big bad protector? Are you fucking kidding me?" she asked, taking a step forward before Elliott stepped between them.

"Back to your corners, both of you, and someone fucking explain. Now."

Santana steamed as she sat down on a stack of boxes, her murderous plot written in eyes as she glared at Kurt. Kurt simply rolled his eyes, beyond used to Santana's antics after nearly a decade. "Santana and I weren't friends until she started dating Dani. I was Dani's best friend. Not Santana's. Dani made it pretty damn clear that if Santana didn't clean up her act Dani wouldn't hesitate in leaving her, even if we all knew she was hopelessly in love with our own dash of Satan and would never actually leave her. Until she did."

"She didn't leave me, you asswipe, she was sent away by her brainwashed, Jesus-freak, cult member parents. She didn't leave me," Santana said, almost desperately.

"Kurt, babe, back off," Elliott said, sensing the fact that Santana was actually hurt.

"She started it," Kurt said with a shrug, shooting his boyfriend a glare.

"No, I'm pretty damn certain you did this time, actually. Now, next explanation. Porcelain? Snixx?" Elliott asked, raising his eyebrow at Santana.

"Snixx is my unfiltered alter-ego. Porcelain, among many other creative nicknames, is what I dubbed Kurt sometime during freshman year, isn't that right, Miss Priss?" Santana sighed. "Before Dani made me stop, that is."

Elliott looked between the two. "So, what I'm getting from this is that Santana was a major bitch before she met Dani. Dani made her behave, at least to Kurt, then Santana tried to keep being that person after Dani left but, for some reason, you two lost contact and you became a bitch again."

"Only for like… a month. Then I came here and started to tone it down again." Santana said with a shrug.

Kurt scoffed. "Only because I started threatening that if Dani miraculously found you, I'd tell her that you became your true self again," he shot back at Santana.

"Seriously, Kurt. Before she kills you. Shut the fuck up." Elliott turned to Santana. "So what happened? What made you guys lose contact?"

Santana crossed her arms and looked out the window. "She was sent to live with her aunt. She kept my address and kept writing me and called when she could, but we stopped being 'together' even though we knew neither one would even consider seeing someone else. A few months before her eighteenth birthday she just stopped writing me. We were trying to plan to have the same college visits just to see each other, my parents more than willing to go along with it because they loved her. But it never happened. I don't know what happened to her."

"You do know there's such thing as social media, right?" Elliott asked with one raised eyebrow. "I mean, type in her first and last name to Facebook and you should find her."

Both Santana and Kurt were shaking their head. "She hated social media. Plus, back then her parents wouldn't let her have one. Once she was sent to live with her aunt, she didn't even have a cell phone. She had to intercept the mail to make sure her aunt never found out I was writing her. I checked to see if she ever made a Facebook for years. I still do, once in a while," Santana admitted shyly. "But nothing turns up. She either doesn't want to be found or… or there's nothing to find," Santana said, shrugging.

Kurt and Elliott fell silent for a moment, realizing what Santana was implying. "San, she's not—"

"I don't want to hear it, Kurt. You don't know that."

Silence took over the room for over a minute, all three of them looking at nothing, Santana in particular just trying to keep her emotions in check. She didn't talk about Dani for this reason. There was no closure, no explanation, just silence. Elliott was the one to speak up again, the tension of silence always too much for the exuberant man. "You said your parents loved her?" he asked, trying to switch to a happier topic.

Santana snorted a laugh, nodding her head. "Okay, there's something you need to understand about who I was when Dani and I met. I was in the closet—"

"You? In the closet?"

"Shut up! As I was saying, I was in the closet, to everyone _but_ my parents. I knew who I was, but Kurt's told you how bad McKinley was with that shit. I had told my parents that I _at least_ was bisexual." Santana sighed. "My mom fucking outed me to Dani the first time I hung out with her."


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N Hey lovely readers. I love the response I've been getting regarding this story, I just wanted to answer a couple questions before I keep going. **_

_**It took me a while to come to the conclusion, but they are the same grade. Dani is almost a year older, Santana with a late birthday. It is fairly AU, so just keep that in mind. One reviewer commented on my choice to call them "women" instead of "girls" in the flashback, but keeping in mind the two girls this is mostly about, I think they would consider themselves women, especially considering both of their self-esteems (or perceived self-esteems). But, it depends on the situation and what sounds right to me.**_

_**Next, I have quite a few head canons for Dantana, especially Dani. The biggest one you'll see in this chapter is that she is bilingual. She also speaks Spanish, as does Santana. This plays out a lot in my head with them. However, my Spanish abilities are next to nothing, aided by poor translations from Google translate. From this point on, anything you see in italics are conversations that happen in Spanish.**_

_**Also, I can't really give a set time that I'll update, because I'm a fulltime student and work fulltime. **_

_**Like always, feel free to message me here or tumblr with any questions, and please leave your thoughts in the reviews! (And if people ever thing it needs to be changed to M, someone let me know!)**_

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_Sophomore Year..._

"Alls I'm saying is that putting us skinny bitches at the bottom of the pyramid isn't only cruel, it's stupid. No one can lift Misty without throwing their back out," Santana said for the fifth time, rephrasing each attempt to try to get the disapproving pout off of Brittany's lips.

"Well, San, maybe if you'd stop insulting the captains where they can hear you, they'll stop punishing all three of us," Quinn said as she inspected her flawless nails yet again, obviously bored.

"Tell me you don't agree," she dared with a smirk. "They can't lead with shit. We're junior captains! Can't they just listen to us? We'd rule that squad so much better than them. There's isn't a girl that's not afraid of the two of us, and they've been using Britt's choreo since she was like twelve," Santana tried to defend.

"Exactly, San," Quinn groaned, rolling her eyes. "Junior captains. As sophomores. The squad is ours in May, for two years, if you stop pissing all of them off. So shut your mouth for two more months. Please," she said with yet another eye roll. This conversation was a repeat of five before, each time Santana smoothly angering the senior captains.

"So, do you guys want to come over to my house?" Brittany asked, trying to end the conversation. "My mom made those special cookies with glitter in them again."

Santana was opening her mouth to respond, a general ringtone cutting off the response. She held once finger up as she swiped a finger over her phone. _"Hola, this is Santana…_" her tone changed immediately, the sound of cheerful, innocent girl shocking the other two women. The only people to ever call her were her family, everyone else always resorting to text messages. Santana assumed it was because everyone who texted her were afraid to call in the middle of a Snixx-induced rampage. The pattern caused her to never check the caller ID.

"_How'd you know I speak Spanish? Creeper…_" Dani giggled into the receiver.

"Oh… Dani… Hey…" Santana said, feeling her cheeks heat up as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry about that." She glanced at Quinn, whose eyebrows were creeping up her forehead at the stuttered apology. Brittany simply hummed and smiled as she walked; the smile she flashed at Santana was all-too-knowing. Santana would be annoyed by Brittany's uncanny ability to read people if she wasn't so grateful to have someone simply understand her.

"Don't worry about it. I grew up learning both," she said causally. A few muffled yells in Spanish could be heard on her side of the conversation before they were drowned out again. "So you said I shouldn't contact you the day before with an implied threat, so I figured day of would be better." Her voice was even, bored almost, without a hint of fear.

"Me too, actually," she said. "Uh… The… Spanish thing," she said, chuckling softly as she turned away from the prying eyes of her best friends. "What do you want to meet up?" she asked, shaking her head to regain her focus.

A small hum of thought could be heard on Dani's end. "Well, my parents are kind of strict. I can't meet Sundays or school nights after eight. I know that's…incredibly restricting…but there's not much I can do about it." Her parents' rules made it fairly easy to alienate people; something she depended on to keep her distance with how often they moved, but the company her dad was with gave him a five year contract. While she didn't care much about Santana's opinion of her, she was already convinced that glee club would be the reason she made it to graduation – if she did. Much to her dismay, Santana and the Cheerio Bimbos seemed to be a part of the club, regardless of their reasoning. Dani figured that it was a feeble attempt at balancing out a one-point-zilch grade point average for their college applications.

"Oh yeah. That kind of blows…" Santana agreed, waving off the looks of confusion from Quinn and Brittany. "I just finished Cheerios practice. Why don't you give me an hour or so and just come over tonight?" she offered, pursing her lips.

"Oh," Dani responded, slightly shocked. "Yeah, that's totally cool. I'll see you in an hour, Santana."

"Yeah, see you in an hour," she said before hanging up her phone again. She simply shrugged at Quinn and Brittany, but the barely there flush on her cheeks was more than enough evidence for the latter. Brittany smiled softly, her walk getting perkier as Santana dropped the phone back into her bag. "Sorry, B, looks like I'm not coming tonight. I gotsta go. Later Bitch, Bye Britt-Britt," she said with a small wave before sliding into her car and driving off.

* * *

Santana let out a long sigh as she wiped the steam off of the mirror. She took a long, hot shower, having opted to stay in the gym for an extra twenty minutes as she did after every practice. She never showered with the girls. She claimed that the school water hurt her skin and made her hair frizz, but every day she'd get the same look from Brittany – the knowing, self-aware look that made Santana's skin crawl every other time. At least she stopped pressing the subject after Santana almost started crying last month. She leaned against the sink, sighing lowly. She couldn't stand to be in the showers every day with the girls on the squad, awkwardly over-aware of every glance and each body. There were days that she wished she could go back to her ignorance – before she realized her sexuality, when she could date and hook up with whatever guy she chose without a splash of guilt or the thought of women in her mind. In Santana's case, ignorance truly was bliss.

She started taking care of her hair, brushing it slowly and drying it straight. She didn't like this time; when she was alone and left to her thoughts. At cheer and glee practice, she had plenty of other things to think about. In school, she could focus on her work (which she actually did) or how to get attention off of the fact that she hadn't had a boyfriend in a while. Berry usually did the trick for the latter. Now, in silence, Santana could only think. She had over two years left before she could leave Lima, and that was exactly what she was going to do. Leave and never look back.

She sat on her bed, staring at the cheerios uniform that hung on the back of her door. The uniform offered unbelievable protection for her. Being one of Sue's few favorites, no one in the school dared to touch her. Between Quinn, Santana, and Brittany, Coach Sylvester was well aware that her team was set for the next two years. Quinn had the natural leadership, Santana the talent for cheering and having the entire team and school afraid of her, and Brittany's choreography made the team unstoppable. It wasn't her life, though. She enjoyed it, but her dreams extended more than just being an NFL girl.

"You're late," Santana said as she opened the door to Dani, who simply scoffed and walked past her. "By all means, come in."

"I'm five minutes late because I needed to find your place, and of course you were going to let me in because, as I believe you said, 'you wants the stix…'" Dani said, trying to imitate the other woman.

"Once you've raised your cool level off of the bottom of Berry's barrel, you'll understand the need for the Stix. Now come on before your curfew hits and you need to run home to Mommy and Daddy," Santana said with a small smirk, walking upstairs to her room.

"Clever. Making fun of my curfew. Never heard that before. And Kurt said you were actually creative with your insults," she laughed, smirking.

"Whatever," she said, shaking her head. "Why don't you just tell me what songs you thought of so I can shoot them down and we do something that I come up with," Santana said, closing her bedroom door at Dani put her guitar down on her bed, opening the lid and flashing a rainbow flag sticker at Santana for a moment, causing her to blush and look away.

"Well, I've never heard you sing before. And, if you want to win, why don't you do something different? Maybe something good for the both of us?" Dani suggested as she checked the tuning on her guitar.

"Fine. I'll bite. What did you have in mind?" Santana said as she fell back onto the bed.

"What about Tegan and-"

"No."

"Uh-huh-"

"Again, no."

"Holy shit. First of all, I wasn't even going to suggest Uh Huh Her. That'd be pretty crazy to pull off in a week. But Tegan and Sara? They're my favorite artists," Dani said as she rolled her eyes. "But, the real question is, how did you know I'd suggest them?"

"The Pride sticker in your case and the rainbow picks kind of gave you away. Plus, my gaydar is flawless. If those weren't enough, you stare at my chest every three minutes, and your nails are neatly kept, but short."

"Oh, so because I'm a lesbian, I obviously have to like bands that have lesbians in them. Real nice."

Santana stared at her for a moment, her lips pursed when the front door opened and closed. _"Mija? You home?"_ Santana's mom's voice echoed upstairs.

"_Si, mami! Bedroom!"_ Santana answered back, shrugging at Dani for a moment. Not thirty seconds later her bedroom door opened.

"_Hola, mija, how was your… Oh, I didn't realize you had a friend here. _Hi, I'm Maribel, Santana's mother," she said.

"Dani, it's nice to meet you."

"You too, dear. _She's cute, Santana," _she said, turning back to her daughter with a wide grin.

"_Mami!"_ Santana said, trying to stop her.

"_What? You can't deny it."_

"_I think she's trying to stop you because I speak Spanish,"_ Dani interrupted, her glance switching between a hidden smirk at Santana and an innocent smile at Maribel.

"Oh… I'll start dinner. I hope you're staying, Dani," Maribel said, disappearing behind the door and making a point to leave it ajar.

Dani looked at Santana, her smirk fully grown. "Okay. Let me get this straight, because you're obviously not. From what Kurt said, me and him are the only two out kids are school. But… you're out to your parents? So your parents know, but no one else?" she asked, laughing.

Santana rolled her eyes. "Brittany does? Kind of…" she muttered. "Just keep your mouth shut."

"So that's why you thought of Tegan and Sara and Uh Huh Her right away. Tell me, do you have the box set of The L Word, too?"

"Shut the fuck up! Not everyone doesn't have a reputation to worry out."

Dani bit her lip and sighed, shaking her head. "Okay, so what's the story with Pouty?" she asked, changing the topic.

"Pouty?"

"Cute brunette. Dresses like a kindergartener. Plaid skirt," Dani said with a small smirk. "Looked pissed while I auditioned. I'm writing that one off as jealousy."

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you just called Berry cute," Santana scoffed, shaking her head.

"Okay, Closet Case, pretend you've never noticed."

"_Shut up."_

"Anyway…." Dani said, dragging it out. "What was her problem?"

"You don't suck," Santana said with a shrug.

"So what would piss her off more? It seems like fun," she explained with a shrug.

"Last week, after 'Cedes and I did a song from RENT, she went on a ten minute rant about how only she can do Broadway justice, and Lady Hummel if he picks the right song," she offered up.

Dani laughed, putting her guitar down. "I know a song we can do. And we might actually pull it off, PomPom. _Loathing_ from Wicked could be fun, especially if we change a few things. Now onto more important matters. You calling Kurt 'Lady,'" she said, staring at her pointedly.

"Oh, de-stress your breasts. It's not a gay thing. I'm many things, but a hypocrite isn't one. You'll learn this soon, but every time we have a guys versus girls thing, Kurt always joins our team. And I'm fairly convinced he's going to experiment with drag in college, and I don't want him to settle for some less-than-clever pun on penises and tits or something," she said with a shrug, her arms moving to rest behind her head.

"So… you're helping him?" Dani asked for clarification, then just laughing and shaking her head. "Wow." She bit her lip before reaching over, her hand resting on Santana's knee. "Look, if you ever need someone to talk to about… everything. I'm here. Everyone needs someone," she offered.

Santana scoffed, shaking her hand off. "Just because you find out I'm a lesbian, it doesn't mean we're best friends all of a sudden. And it sure as hell doesn't mean that we're going to date. I don't care if you're the only gay chick in school. I don't date guitarists."

Dani rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, PomPom, I don't date cheerleaders."

"Oh please, everyone wants to date a cheerleader."

"Everyone wants to date a guitarist," Dani shot back.

"Been there, done that," Santana scoffed with a shrug.

"Oh yeah? Have you 'been there, done that' with your two blondes?" Dani asked, biting her lip and wiggling her eyebrows.

Santana reached over and swatted her arm. "And that's exactly why I don't date guitarists. You and Puck will be great friends."

Dani laughed, pulling out her laptop and looking for her Wicked soundtrack. "Now that we're on the same page that we aren't going to date each other – even if I am curious as to why you brought that up – let's focus on the song, shall we?"


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N: Sorry this took so long guys. Moving and finals and work caused me to need to refocus for a little while. I've got most of the story completely mapped out, so it's just a matter of sitting down and writing to get another update. Lots of plane time and travel time coming up for that though! Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!_**

"So, you're basically saying she was loud, obnoxious, and closeted? I've known you for over five years. That doesn't exactly sound like your type, Dani," Lauren commented as she took their empty glasses and quickly washed them in the sink beneath the bar.

"Well… yeah, at first," Dani chuckled, shaking her head slightly. "That was kind of a façade though. She was terrified, and for good reason. McKinley was brutal to people remotely different. We started really hanging out that summer. She challenged me. A lot. Most girls still see my… stronger personality and either cave to me or run away. But not San." Dani bit her lip, thinking back. "Santana rivaled me. We were both stubborn and stuck in our ways but it worked for us. We kept each other in check." She picked at a flaw in the wood-top bar. "We kept each other on our feet, but we were always there for the other. It was perfect." Dani mumbled the last sentence, her lips pursed.

"You're still in love with her, aren't you?"

"No," Dani said quickly – perhaps a little too quickly. "I haven't seen her in nearly six years, Lauren. But finding someone else is really hard when you've had someone who checked all the boxes," Dani sighed, causing Lauren's eyebrows to raise.

"Oh, please, tell me those boxes she checked," she laughed, smirking.

"You're an ass," Dani muttered. She leaned back in her barstool, her lips pursed once again. "First, she was hot as hell-"

"Hotter than me?"

"Much. If you want this list, shut up." Lauren raised her hands in surrender. "…But, adorable at the same time. She pushed me and challenged me, but was always there for me, as I said. She was smart, too. Really smart. And we just worked. Plus, and laugh all you want at this, she spoke Spanish fluently. We could have a completely private conversation and no one would know, not even the dumb ass Spanish teacher we had."

"The whole package, huh?" Lauren asked after a moment. Dani hesitated, then nodded. "Then, Dani, you either need to find her, or forget about her. You're not doing yourself any favors pining like this."

"I'm not pining, Laur, I'm just not wasting my time with relationships that are far from right. I'm not waiting for her or something like that. It's not like every day I sit here and think about her," Dani defended.

"You don't?"

"No. It's just once in a while. You were talking about good relationships and Santana was mine." It wasn't a complete lie. Dani just actively _didn't_ think about her. Everything Santana was locked away in a shoe box in her closet. Once in a while Dani would indulge herself by taking it down to look through the photos for a few hours. By the end of the nostalgic high, Dani would be convinced that she had to end her current relationship, because it simply didn't match.

Lauren's eyebrows rose once again. In five years, this was the first time she was seeing this side of her best friend. Dani tried relationships, over and over again, only to give up each with a bitter speech over wine. The ending, of course, was generally different. It usually resulted in Dani hitting on Lauren until Nick came, sending Dani pouting into the arms of her next three month relationship. "Dani… This girl… She's from six years ago. More than. Do you think maybe you're putting more on this relationship than there was actually there?" she asked tentatively, not wanting to upset her more.

"Lauren. I don't care if we were young. Yes, we were reckless and stupid and she had just face-planted out of the closet and I was running around with my own personal pride parade, but it was real. And it was amazing." She sighed, running her hand through her hair again. "Look, you had your parents to look up to for that model relationship, right?" Dani earned a tentative nod. "I have Santana. My parents were shit. But my relationship with Santana? That was how it should be. And her parents? That was even better. Her mom adored me. Her dad gave me cigars. They were both completely convinced we'd end up together. And they were more than willing to take me in when my parents found out. That was just… the best friend I never had, the parents I wished for, and the perfectly imperfect girlfriend all in one. I had my Romantic Comedy with her."

"Well damn. And you've called me a sap," Lauren said after a pause, unsure of how to respond to Dani after that confession.

"That's because you _are_ a sap. What are the names you've picked out with Nick again? Charles and Chelsea for twins. Another Nicholas for a boy. And… poor girl… Colgate for a girl after your grandmother," Dani listed off, ticking off the names on her fingers.

Lauren gave Dani a smirk. "And what did you and Santana have picked out?" she asked, knowing this answer would be worth a laugh.

Dani's lips pursed. "Mateo and Maria. Maybe. We never really agreed on a girl's name," she mumbled, not making eye contact with her laughing best friend.

It didn't take long before enough sarcastic comments were exchanged for the ladies to call it quits for the night. They stacked the remaining barstools into the counter, tipsy giggles falling from their lips as they lost control of the heavy chairs briefly before getting them settled onto the high counter. They parted ways at the door – Nick waiting at home for Lauren nearby, when Dani had to take the subway a half an hour to get back to her small apartment.

She made well for herself, considering. With no help when she arrived to the city and sleeping in YMCAs and shelters until she met Lauren one night who got her a job and a place to sleep. Within a few months, she saved up enough in tips to put her own roof over her head. Dani was proud of herself. She held her head high despite talking about her parents or looking through her local online newspaper, trying to feel as though she still had some sort of contact with the world. Or looking up McKinley. When she saw that Santana and the rest of New Directions won Nationals their senior year; how Santana was interviewed saying that they all dedicated that to someone who should have been on stage with them. When she found herself on the WMHS webpage when all of her friends graduated, watching the LiveStream as Santana and Kurt both walked across the stage. Dani tried to stay connected, even when she didn't feel like she could reach out to any of them, especially Santana.

Dani walked hurriedly after getting off the subway, her leather jacket pulled tight with her finger on the trigger of her pepper spray. It became a habit since Dani moved to the city, letting her heart rate increase on the three block walk from the subway entrance to her front door. Her eyes constantly darted over her shoulder, just in case, as she walked, and every time the only person who was ever there was her sixty year old neighbor walking her Chihuahua that liked to start barking at the sunrise every morning. A polite smile, two turns of a key, and Dani was flipping the dead bolt of her apartment door back into place with a soft sigh.

Her one bedroom apartment was modest, but became decently furnished through the years of double shifts and two bartending jobs, which was now down to one thanks to Lauren giving her the shifts she needed. She blindly made her way to her bedroom, dropping her coat and purse on the back of the couch as she went. She counted the two seconds until the flopped onto the wood floor, as always, as they slipped off the back of the sofa.

This was a pattern. Dani would stay late with Lauren, silently pad her way through her apartment, and find her bed. She was pulling her obnoxiously high heels off of her feet when she looked to the closet, eying the corner of the shoe box perched on the top shelf. Now shoeless, Dani walked to the closet, pushing herself up onto the balls of her feet again, wincing in pain as she pulled the box down.

The box was open before Dani made it back to her bed, the tattered photos falling from between her fingers as she looked through them. Homecoming. Prom. Regionals. Christmas. Thanksgiving. Santana's Brother's Wedding. They were all there, each one with Dani and Santana wearing varying levels of loving grins as they gazed at each other or the camera. The one she was searching for, though, was one that was barely lit. They were sitting outside at a campfire in Santana's backyard after spending all summer together. All summer, and an incredibly emotional day. Santana's eyes had just met Dani's, who was cradling the guitar but staring right back at Santana, both smiling softly with the day's worries far behind, completely unaware of what the night would bring.

Thank God for Brittany's shutterbug timing.


End file.
